Obesity is a major threat to public health that disproportionately affects certain population groups and a key driver of non-communicable diseases. All regions of the world and age groups are affected by the problem. According to WHO 1.9 billion adults were overweight in 2016, of which 650 million were obese. Its significant health and economic burden is a big concern for many governments and intergovernmental agencies that propose numerous global and national action plans to halt obesity. Such population-wide actions consider measures that influence health behaviors and make healthy options the easy options. Examples include fiscal policies, nutritional labelling, changes in the food system e.g. reduced portion sizes and product reformulation, restrictive food marketing and advertising to children and actions to promote healthier environments in school¹. Despite policy responses put in place obesity continues to be a pressing public health issue indicating that responses need to be stepped up using innovative and multi-sectoral approaches. Critical to the development and success of such actions is the participation of the scientific community in the knowledge-transfer and decision-making processes by addressing both research- and policy-driven questions and by collaborating closely with policy makers and other stakeholders².